


The Dark Between the Stars

by KS_Claw



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Child Loss, Conquest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 16:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30142038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KS_Claw/pseuds/KS_Claw
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, the Golden Age of the Constellations did not end with a bang.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 6





	The Dark Between the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I can finally call myself back! I am DONE with school, and that means I'll finally have time and possibly energy to work on fic again!  
> (this still does not mean I want any 'please update' comments, both because they're stressful and they are generally rude.)
> 
> SO! Let's start off with an angsty piece. I've been working on this for a long time inbetween school-assignments and now sat down and got it finished up. This is for now a one-shot, unless decided otherwise.

Contrary to popular belief, the Golden Age of the Constellations did not end with a bang. Rather, it was slowly smothered to death, in the very bed it had made for itself.

Fact: Once upon a time, the Constellations were ruled by a wise, if young Tsar Lunanoff. He was a good man, and protective of his people, and wanted to do everything to protect it, and his family. This included protecting it from the dangers and darkness of the Shadows. Fearlings, Nightmare Men, Dream Pirates. None of them would harm his people.

Fact: The same good Tsar had an army. Leading the army was one Lord Kozmotis Pitchiner, the Golden General of the Golden Army. Like the Tsar, he was a wise and good man, who had done everything to be kind and merciful to the creatures he was protecting the Constellations from.

At least, until the same creatures were responsible for the loss of his family.

Fact: The Tsar and General were both men who would do anything to protect their people. This included difficult sacrifices, made by those who had nothing to lose.

A prison was built to contain the Shadows. The General was said to have volunteered to guard it. 

History will claim that these were his final words to the Tsar once upon a time: 

_“I have nothing left, but my duty to protect. And no one else must suffer the same loss that I did.”_

In truth, they might have been different. They might have been that noble, or they might have been bitter and angry. Loss and grief can change a man, and those who are victorious prefer to paint a pretty picture through art or words, rather than reveal the ugly face of truth.

Fact: Kozmotis Pitchiner was alone in his duties. No one but the Shadows trapped behind iron doors were there to keep him company. Whether or not this was on purpose, by his own choice, or done so involuntarily is at this point unknown.

History will blur for most eyes at this point. Most outsiders will say: A Fearling trickery happened. The Shadows tricked the Golden General into opening the door by appealing to his kind heart.

_Just a little bit, a bit of fresh air…_

A time traveler might be able to say that there was indeed trickery, but it came in the form of a voice. A voice that the General knew well.

_DADDY! I’m trapped and it’s so dark and I’m scared!  
_

The Shadows are old, old as the dark between the stars that they were born from. Once upon a time, some of these Shadows used to be humans. And the part that was once human knows what it is to suffer, and what it is to want revenge.

What it is like to plant a seed of doubt.

And history, whether by those victorious or defeated, will take care of the rest.

It is so easy to speak ill of those who might as well be dead, when they are not there to listen and defend themselves.

Fact: The doors to the prison were opened. The General was lost, and along with him, so was the Golden Age of the Constellations.  
  
Fact: The peace of the Golden Age was a lie.

* * *

At the outer rims of the Constellations was Pyxis. It was one of the smaller Constellations, with its own range of planets, most of them being homes for farmers, though some had left as Pyxis lay close to the borders of the territory where the Shadow Prison was located. (An _Open Secret_ if ever there was one. Most Pyxians knew because many of the farmers had been drafted to help with constructing the prison. The larger Constellations were ‘protected’ from this knowledge.)

The larger Constellations did not see them as important, and Pyxis could sustain itself, even if its distance from other Constellations had the side-effect, that the occasional Solar Flare or the passing of a meteor or even a harmless Star Pilot, could knock communication off for days. 

In the old days, it would have been the cause for worry, since the nearest Guard Station was almost another System away, and it could take a long time for help to arrive. But since the completion of the Shadow Prison, and the knowledge that all Shadows were locked within, that worry had slowly died off.

For without Shadows, without Nightmare Men and Dream Pirates, what was there to truly fear?

* * *

Estelle woke up to the feeling that there was something wrong. She lay awake for a while, listening. It was still night, and the wind was moving outside, causing things to shift and the house to creak. Everything else was quiet, so what could have woken her up?  
  
Everything was _quiet_. That was the problem. Haugen, her husband, wasn’t home, and when he was, he was a noisy sleeper that snored like a sawmill. Their boys had inherited that from him, and Estelle was so used to the noise that she could sleep without trouble.

But now… now it was quiet. Usually, when Tino and Merry had a nightmare, they would come to their parents for comfort, and Estelle couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.

Estelle moved out of bed, shivering as her bare feet touched the cold, wooden floor. The boards creaked under her as she put her full weight on them. She stood still, some instinct making her wish for the boards to _please, please be quiet, don’t make a sound…_

After a moment of deep silence, she dared to move. Practice allowed her to cross the old boards quietly, her eyes slowly picking up shapes in the dark in the shape of the door to the bedroom and the round knob of the door handle. Carefully turning it, she held her breath as she pulled the door open. And while the hinges only creaked slightly, to her it sounded so terribly, _terribly_ loud in this eerie silence.

Stepping out into the corridor felt even more perilous. All the hairs on Estelle’s body stood on end, a dreadful chill spreading up through the soles of her feet and giving her goosebumps. She clenched her teeth shut to keep them from chattering, as she moved down the corridor towards the room that her boys shared.

It was going to be fine, she told herself. She was just being silly. She would open the door, and both of her boys would be fast asleep. Or maybe Tino would wake up, because despite his snoring he could be a light sleeper at times, and he would wake up and ask his mother what was wrong. And she would be able to tell him that _“nothing is wrong, mommy just woke up and needed to check on you, go back to sleep…”_

The door was open. It was only a crack, but it was enough to make Estelle freeze in her tracks. 

The chill felt as though it was penetrating her bones now, and her jaw spasmed, making her bite her tongue. She flinched from the pain, and cursed inwardly as she covered her mouth, tasting iron. A part of her supposed she should be grateful that she could feel pain, because this meant that this was no dream. Or even worse… a nightmare.

There was a sudden rustling noise, and Estelle froze as she tried to pinpoint it. Had it come from behind her in the corridor, or was it in front of her, inside the boys’ bedroom? She couldn’t tell, and that sent a shiver of a different kind of chill up her spine. The rustling sound was gone as fast as it had appeared, and to Estelle it felt as though the silence became even more oppressing.

“Merry? Tino?” She called out, feeling the need to have sound, any sound, to fill up this dreadful silence.

By now, she had somehow reached the door, reaching out to push it open. It did so with a deep, wooden groan, the door itself opening slowly and revealing the room where her boys slept. Maybe her boys were awake, despite how they had to help their parents with work and then school in the morning. Her boys would be fine, they would be safe...

Their beds were empty.

And there was a tall, strange man standing in the room.

Somehow, for some reason, Estelle realized to her horror that she almost had not seen the stranger. He was standing so eerily still, clad in a black cloak that made him blend completely into the shadows, his head lowered and his eyes closed as though he was standing and taking in the eerie silence that had been permeating the house. But with the realization that her children were missing, came the following conclusion that this stranger had to be responsible.  
  
“ _Merry! Tino!_ ” Estelle shouted before she could stop herself, as though calling their names would make them appear instantly, before she looked to the stranger, the protective instincts of a mother momentarily overcoming the terror of finding her children missing, and a stranger in her home.  
  
“My children! _My boys!_ Where are they!?” She now demanded. Whatever further demands she might have had died in her throat, as the man looked up at her, and opened his eyes. They were an almost glowing gold that seemed to stare right through Estelle, as if looking into her soul.

_They were Fearling eyes._

_But no…_ Estelle thought with growing horror. _That couldn’t be! It wasn’t possible!_ The Prison had every single Fearling and Shadow locked inside! No Fearlings or Nightmare Men could be here! _It was **impossible!!!**_

The man was suddenly in front of her, and Estelle tried to scream ( _how had he moved so fast?!?_ ), but all that came from her throat was a strangled whimper of terror. The icy chill of fear left her immobilized, and while every single instinct of her was screaming at her to run, to flee from this terrible creature, she felt unable to.

The man said nothing. He simply looked at her with a strange, almost curious expression, slowly leaning his head to the side as though studying her.

The rustling had returned, surrounding the two of them. And Estelle knew with continuously mounting horror what was making that sound.

_Fearlings._ The shadows were alive and moving, scuttling about them in the darkness like rats. And among those shadows came the soft, sniffling sounds of weeping. Like that of crying children.

Her children.

“No…” 

Estelle’s heart was stuttering in her chest as she realized what had happened. What had woken her up.

This creature. This _Nightmare man._ Had stealthily moved into her home in the middle of the night. He had found the bedroom of her two boys...

And had made the nightmare of any parent come true, by turning them into Fearlings.

As if sensing her horrified realization, the Nightmare Man of all things, suddenly smiled. It was odd, a part of Estelle thought, as if he was trying to seem comforting, while also being incredibly menacing.

“Do not worry.” He said, and his voice was strange, as if his words were being repeated in an echo a million times over. “Your children are safe. And so are the others.” 

_Others..?_ Estelle thought, and clasped her hand to her mouth with horror when she realized what the creature meant. Her neighbors, her family, and all of their children. Her **husband** and _any_ of the men who had been working their nightshift…! 

_“Moooommy…”_ Estelle felt her heart freeze in her chest at the sound behind her. It sounded so much like her Tino, yet also like the pitiful mewl of a kitten. 

_It’s not real,_ she tried to tell herself, _it’s just a nightmare!_ But the feeling of what felt like sharp-taloned skeletal hands grabbing onto the skirt of her nightgown told her otherwise, and she nearly shrieked when she looked down into the hollow, lamp-eyed face of a Fearling

_“Moooommyyy…”_ Came Tino’s voice again from the creature and Estelle choked on a sob, trying to step away from it. More skeletal hands grabbed from the other side, closer to her hip and she found another creature had latched on to her.

_“Maamaaa…”_ Came Merry’s voice next, drawn out and soft, like when either of her boys were exhausted from a long day. They clung to her now, even as part of her finally reacted to the instincts that told her to _**run**_ and **_get out of here_** and find help!

Instead, the weight of the Fearlings tripped her, sending her sprawling across the floor. It was as though she was weighed down by sacks of stones, and she cried out along with the mewling Fearlings that surrounded her.

The Nightmare Man watched all of this with his strangely menacing, yet comforting smile. As if hoping that Estelle would be grateful that he was allowing her children to touch her.

“That is enough, children. We have much to do.”   
  
The Nightmare Man moved past her, his cloak dragging across her for a moment (and it was cold, _so cold_ , like being brushed by fingers made of ice). And just as sudden as they had latched on to her, the Fearlings that had been her children let go, quickly following the Nightmare Man like puppies scampering after him, and all the other Fearlings.

Estelle lay frozen for a moment, before she realized what was happening, and began to scramble, forcing herself to roll over so she was on her stomach as the man continued heading towards the exit of her home.

“N- _No!_ ” She cried out, “ _Merry! Tino!!_ ”   


For a moment, the two of the many Fearlings swarming the corridor paused and looked back. Then, their faces broke into terrible open mouthed smiles, their gangly limbs waving slowly in an awkward gesture, as though they couldn’t control them.

_“Byee byeee mommyyyy…”_ they echoed, and turned away, leaving Estelle behind as they faded into the darkness.

Silence fell once more. Estelle was crouched on the floor, staring in horror at the empty corridor, where her transformed children had been mere moments ago. Taken by a being that couldn’t, _shouldn’t_ exist in what had been a promised Golden Age…

For the first time since she had woken up that night, Estelle felt a surge of warmth as hot tears ran down her face, the droplets falling and hitting her hands that were clenched against the floor. The silence was steadily being broken now by her steadily rising gasps, until finally it was shattered by Estelle’s heart wrenching scream.

* * *

Pyxis would not be the only colony suffering what would become known as The Loss. Many smaller colonies in the outskirts of the otherwise Grand Constellations would suffer similar losses, and all of the devastated parents or guardians would tell the same tale: Of the sight of a tall, lone man who appeared to be a Nightmare Man, sneaking in like a thief in the night and taking all of the children, no matter the age. 

And no one considered that something severe could have happened to the Shadow Prison itself. Not until a message was relayed to the Tsar himself, in the Lunar Capital of the Constellations. 

**_“Rejoice, Rejoice, O People of the Stars. The Nightmare King Pitch Black has come to claim what is His. And know that None shall be spared.”_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated, but anything along the lines of "Please update" will get deleted.


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